Winter Mode Sucks

shizzler · December 7th, 2009, 09:51

Thanks to a warmer than usual November, I was able to rock the summer mode all the way into December this year. With snow in the forecast that all came to an end this past weekend though. Spun the Koni coils all the way back up, side skirts off, snow tires on. Snowboard rack hopefully going on soon.

How many other folks transform their Jetta every spring and fall? Post a couple pics of your before and after!

Mine, at the car wash right before the changeover:

And now..... :

RabbitGTI · December 7th, 2009, 10:27

Stock springs and econo TC. All I do is bolt on the steelies and Blizzaks or Nokians depending on the car. I love winter. These things don't have enough power to be any fun on dry pavement....but mud, ice and snow is a whole different story....whoo hoo....

Concat · December 7th, 2009, 13:02

Hey you got those turbulence inducing things on your rear window?

You figure they do anything?

eb2143 · December 7th, 2009, 13:15

Front grills smoothed over and mirror delete too. Any air tabs/turbulence things on the underside? I like the mix of power, looks, and economy mods!

What are the summer tires?
My transformation isn't all that dramatic so I won't post it. Snowflake borbet rims with Michelin X-ice and a VW front grill blockoff.

Concat · December 7th, 2009, 14:24

Didn't notice the mirror delete!

I like the smoked out rear lights too. Some tint on your windows would make it look pretty sweet.

rocketeer928 · December 7th, 2009, 16:25

In the summer I have Enkei 17-inch Silver Wheels with Yokohama 235/45R17 Tires. They go on around the middle of April.

In the winter I have my stock wheels with OEM-sized Blizzaks, and they go on Thanksgiving week. My mileage actually goes up with my narrower winter tires.

TDI_Coast2Coast · December 7th, 2009, 18:48

I hear you. Getting ready to swap out the 17" Goals for the 16" full snows....

But that means skiing

Now:

shizzler · December 8th, 2009, 06:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Concat

Hey you got those turbulence inducing things on your rear window?

You figure they do anything?

Yeah, "vortex generators". When I put them on my scan gauge readings jumped a bit, but I made a couple other changes at the same time (new tuning debug). The thing is, they create a certain amount of drag themselves in their effort to trip the boundary layer. They definitely made the airflow conform down the rear glass and trunk lid better, but I think the savings in rear wake were mostly offset by their own drag. At least they look cool. Heres some testing I did on them: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...rear-8839.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by eb2143

Front grills smoothed over and mirror delete too. Any air tabs/turbulence things on the underside? I like the mix of power, looks, and economy mods!

What are the summer tires?

Thanks! The underside of the car has: front skid plate (basically a smooth belley pan) with some custom extra side panels, a rear belly pan that covers up the rear axle, and a rear diffuser that you can see in the one pic above. No VG's / Airtabs on the bottom. Summer tires are Michelin Energy MXV4s, great for LRR.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Concat

Didn't notice the mirror delete!

I like the smoked out rear lights too. Some tint on your windows would make it look pretty sweet.

Yeah, still learning to deal with the mirror delete. But its not so bad (all my highways are two lane only). Between the grill blocks, underbody panels, mirror delete and (maybe) the vortex generators, my fuel economy is up 4 mpg or about 9%.

I've thought about tint many times, but my Honda Civic from high school (now driven by my girlfriend) now has ugly purple windows. What a pain in the ass to remove it. Not worth the hassle. In the summer it would be great for keeping the car cool, but I kind of like the solar effect in the winter time. Plus MI law says no tint on the front windows, so it just looks dumb to do the rear only.

shizzler · December 8th, 2009, 06:09

Rocketeer, do you know how heavy your enkeis are? Seems most Enkeis are really light. I am surprised your mileage goes up on the snow tires.. mine always dips a couple mpgs (but I drive mostly highway).

Damn coast 2 coast, I love the new wagons! They come with "joey modded" headlights, black grills, and those wheels are awesome. Almost like VW was reading vwvortex forums.... Let's see it when you've got the 16"s on too!

Concat · December 8th, 2009, 08:04

Going from 17" to 15" wheels will increase mileage....

NB_TDi · December 8th, 2009, 14:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Concat

Going from 17" to 15" wheels will increase mileage....

If they weigh less.

I don't really have any 'visual' changes on my car. I add a winter front and take the hub caps off for the winter tires. I think it makes my car looking meaner actually.

rocketeer928 · December 8th, 2009, 18:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by shizzler

Rocketeer928, do you know how heavy your enkeis are? Seems most Enkeis are really light. I am surprised your mileage goes up on the snow tires.. mine always dips a couple mpgs (but I drive mostly highway).

The 17-inch Enkei wheels and 235 tires are 4 lbs heavier than the stock 15-inch alloy wheels and 195 tires for a total of a 16 lb difference. I think the mpg might have more to do with how much rubber I have on the road in the summer vs. the winter. I can't imagine that the new PD lift pump is increasing my mileage even though I just put it in a couple of weeks ago.

Concat · December 9th, 2009, 08:52

Larger diameter wheels require more torque to apply the same amount of lateral force to the road. When you drop the size of the wheels, you suddenly have more acceleration provided your right foot is just as heavy as before.

This could affect mileage. Not just the wheel weight.

It's still surprising though, considering colder temperature + winter diesel usually means lower MPG.

NB_TDi · December 9th, 2009, 12:30

The wheel should still overall be the same size. Due to the smaller lower profile tire.

shizzler · December 9th, 2009, 16:01

... I think you mean the overall tire height. The "wheel" is the shiny part in the middle.

Even if the 15" and 17" wheels are the same exact weight, the 17" wheel requires more torque to accelerate due to higher moment of inertia (more mass located further from wheel center). Bigger wheels usually get wider too, further increasing weight. The larger / heavier wheel/tire package shouldn't change mileage whatsoever during cruising though, only in acceleration. I never saw any penalty from wheel size (15, 16, 17") because my commute is almost all highway (steady state).

What really kills my winter mileage though is the rolling resistance penalty from snow tires! That's why I was surprised to hear of better winter mileage. If Rocket has sticky performance tires on the 17"s than it makes more sense.

But let's see some more pics of summer vs. winter mode! NB_tdi? I know somebody is gonna get some good winter pics out of this monster storm....